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Cuu Long – Vancouver, BC

This marks the beginning of a new series, which I am dubbing “Tasting with Tee“. It will involve various outings and eating/drinking experiences with the man known as Tee.

Who’s Tee you ask? Well, he’s a regular reader of Foodosophy, who’s been gracious enough to show me some new spots out of my usual range when it comes to Vancouver proper. We all have our haunts and neighborhoods of comfort, and for me that means that I’m willing and able to go as “distant” as Main Street. Anything beyond that towards the boundary of Burnaby has been a truly foreign territory for me. Plus, I hate the drive. Even the names of the intersecting roads along East Broadway and/or Kingsway are a mystery. Tee’s been gracious to be my guide to the “far east”…

So with that, Tee suggested an outing for “meat on rice”. Saying, “let’s go to Knight”, that instruction basically meant nothing to me. It wasn’t until I saw a previously visited place nearby, that I sort of knew where I was. Cuu Long (minus the funky accent mark) is a Vietnamese restaurant that is nothing flashy from the outside. Parking right in front is limited to a precious few spots, otherwise its best to find a place in the side street just up the block.

Inside was a pretty decent crowd on this weekday evening, all digging into their meals already. I think the combination of visible location and reasonable prices is a big draw.

To supplement our “meat on rice” themed mains, we opted to begin our meal with what amounted to some shrimp cakes. Heavy on the crusty and doughy batter, a few bites in and it lost its luster. Even the accompanying fresh herbs and dipping fish sauce, did not rescue these “muffins”. Simply too much bread and not enough of the shrimp’s flavor coming out (which were overdone and lost their juiciness as well).

Beef, chicken or pork? With me, its the latter that usually wins out when I have my choice of meat protein. Thin strips, cut up into easier to eat pieces, were nicely marinated and had some good char, giving it that hardened texture on the outside that I love. Could have used more meat though, relative to the volume of rice. I suppose this whole “meat on rice” thing is really hard to mess up. Can’t say it was overly greater than any other time I’ve had it elsewhere, which results in me forming that opinion. At the same time, its always tasty. When it comes to good honest food, what more can you ask for?

If I had one wish with this dish, is that they provide a bit more of the marinade/sauce on top of the meat. Too often in my zealous madness I end up with more leftover rice than anything, and not wanting it to go to waste, I end up spooning mouthfuls of bland, slightly dried out rice into my guilty mouth. A bit more flavor oozing down from the top of the pile of meat, would help this issue out I feel.

The place with two names…I’ve inadvertently been calling this place “Cuu Long” for years (that stylized font makes the “C” look like an “L”).

They definitely have some of the best Vietnamese grilled meats there. Instead of rice, I usually order the Bun (with vermicelli noodles) which comes with a nam pla dipping sauce. The sauce (which you dip your vermicelli into) is a great complement to the sweet teriyaki-like marinade. The grilled pork loaf treated in the same marinade is also quite good.

Iam a regular customer at “Cuu Long” that’s the right way of spelling the name not Cuu Cong, anyways i LOVED the food there, it’s very home cooking with a friendly atomspher and healthy. As for the shrimp cake, its everyone opinion i guess, because i actually love their shrimp cake, I don’t think you guys are eating right. If you ever go back try their sweet and sour soup with either shrimp or fish and carmalized hot pot with either fish or pork, either choice or good. I recommended everyone to try this place out! You can’t go wrong with anything there, and what i love about this place is you can change the menu to your like, and the server is really happy